Gelled air-treating compositions are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,691,615 to Turner, et al.; 2,927,055 to Lanzet; 3,969,280 to Sayce, et al.; 3,997,480 to Singleton, et al.; 3,956,173 to Towle; 4,056,612 to Lin; 4,071,616 to Bloch; 4,128,507 to Mitzner; 4,178,264 to Streit, et al., and 4,318,476 to Claffey et al.
A disadvantage of the conventionally gelled air-treating compositions, however, is their inefficiency in regard to perfume release. It has been found that large amount, often 30% by weight or more of the volatile perfume components incorporated in the prior art gel products during manufacture, in fact, is not released to the environment, but rather is entrapped in a gel residue. Thus, at the point the consumer can no longer detect a noticeable release of perfume, the product is discarded by the consumer, even though the gel residue contains undiffused fragrance. Beneficially, the gelled air freshner dispensers should provide essentially complete utilization of the perfume with adequate levels dispensed from the gel composition during its useful life.
It is an object, then, of the present invention to provide an aqueous-based gel air-treating composition that exhibits improved fragrance transmission efficiency during its useful life.
It is a further object of the present invention to substantially reduce the concentration of the volatile perfume constituents remaining in the residue portion of the gel at the end of its useful life.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an aqueous-based gel air-treating composition that exhibits greater fragrance-release per unit weight of product at a given perfume load.
To achieve the aforesaid objects, it is primarily an object of the present invention to provide an aqueous-based gel air-treating composition which incorporates air or other inert gaseous material into its gel base composition.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method for the manufacture of the air-treating composition of the present invention.
These and other objects and advantages will be more readily apparent upon reading the detailed description of the invention, a summary of which follows.